title: Enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic Leymus chinensis plants with constitutively expressed wheat TaLEA3.
abstract: Leymus chinensis is an important grassland perennial grass. However, its drought tolerance requires to be improved. LEA (late embryogenesis abundant) genes are believed to confer resistance to drought and water deficiency. Using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, a wheat LEA gene, TaLEA(3), was integrated into L. chinensis. The transgenic lines showed enhanced growth ability under drought stress during which transgenic lines had increased the relative water content, leaf water potential, relative average growth rate, but decreased the malondialdehyde content compared with the non-transgenic plant. Thus, transgenic breeding is an efficient approach to enhance drought tolerance in L. chinensis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shuangyan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Gongshe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D055864:Droughts; D024861:Genetic Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000502:physiology*; D006109:Poaceae / Q000502:physiology*; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; C066246:late embryogenesis abundant protein, plant